Due Time

The first time she saw Sasuke, he was in the forest, a few paces behind his brother, struggling to stay at an acceptable distance. Sakura was only six years old then, but already, she was beginning to understand what was expected of a shinobi.

Love was for the feeble.

She watched it dancing in his eyes, noticed it pulling at his lips—something sweet and delicate, mixed in with a dash of hope and jealousy—and then saw it fizzle out and burn as he tripped over a root in the dirt behind Itachi, who, despite the accident, continued walking at an even, brisk pace.

Witnessing even Sasuke fall victim to this raging dragon inside of her—love, that's what it was—she decided that, no matter what the Shinobi Book of Rules said, it wasn't important.

When Sakura was six years old, she caved in on herself and began building knowledge around a single bud, one disregarded rule.

-

The year that Sakura turned twelve, the dragon that had been slowly settling down in the pits of her stomach decided to rear up again with such intensity that she was almost violently ill when Iruka-sensei told her the good news.

Hearing that she and Sasuke were going to be on the same cell was like having a piece of one of her greatest fantasies finally falling into place. Naruto ruined it by loudly voicing the same opinion, confessing his love for her.

Then he kissed Sasuke.

She vowed to kill him for it, but Sasuke made the most adorable little choking noise, and…and she was so stupid. The bud began mutating.

So she waited. And waited.

And then she met Kakashi, father figure extraordinaire, master of a thousand jutsu, and owner of one freaky eye.

He shielded her when Sasuke and Naruto couldn't (and in time, she came to appreciate both of her boys), and, eventually, passed them all onto the Chuunin exams.

For the first half of the exam, she hid behind her giant forehead and put all of her booksmarts to use. She wore a mask of confidence and buried herself further and further into a fake reality. The flower grew and grew.

When Sasuke and Naruto were both knocked unconscious and Kin decided to play a little rough, the frail little flower she'd become slowly began to unfurl into something beautiful, and she fought back tooth and nail.

Somewhere along the way, lost among the strands of her past, (…how odd pink hair looked scattered on the forest floor) Lee and Ino's teams came to enjoy a real show.

"Watch my back," she told them…and though she didn't let go of love, and though she didn't kill the dragon inside of her, they watched.

At the end, everyone stood as equals.

-

…But of course, after the exam, Kakashi kindly reminded her that her life wasn't a fairytale.

It all fell apart, ashes to ashes. She blamed it on him, on herself. She blamed it on anyone but Sasuke, who had left her, who she'd pleaded with. Everything that she was—everything that she'd built up over the years, all of her intelligence and usefulness—amounted to nothing in his striking red eyes.

She cried for days and then sent Naruto away too.

After a while she even began avoiding Kakashi, who, even though he scarcely showed it, had something of Sasuke's hiding under his hitai-ate. Hatake Kakashi had an Uchiha eye and it drove her insane.

She locked herself into her room, shrank into another bud, started at a new beginning, and, after weeks of wallowing, went to Tsunade, who pushed her in the right direction. (Maybe a little too hard.)

Tsunade taught her medical jutsu. Tsunade taught her how to hold her alcohol. Tsunade taught her how to lose (badly) at gambling.

Tsunade taught her how to shatter the ground under Kakashi's feet.

-

When Naruto returned with Jiraiya, and Sakura's flower—her shell—was considerably larger (stronger) once again, Kakashi proposed the idea of holding Bell Test number two.

Sakura dug herself underground, gathered chakra into her fists, aimed high, and released.

Fin